Nathan Klaus of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources discovered a stand of American chestnut trees that somehow escaped a blight that killed off nearly all of the species in the early 1900s:

"There's something about this place that has allowed them to endure the blight," said Nathan Klaus, a biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources who spotted the trees. "It's either that these trees are able to resist the blight, which is unlikely, or Pine Mountain has something unique that is giving these trees resistance."